My understanding is that the financial markets never recovered after 2008 - nobody trusts or understands who is on the other side of a transaction, so the Fed i

My understanding is that the financial markets never recovered after 2008 - nobody trusts or understands who is on the other side of a transaction, so the Fed is essentially carrying the US markets with ~0% interest rates. > Is the thing you are describing considered ‘the corporate credit crunch’? Corporate paper (uninsured 30-day private notes) was frozen for a while in 2008/2009. I don't think it is frozen now, though companies should have saved cash instead of doing share buybacks. (They reduce shares outstanding, hence boost EPS and share/option prices for execs AKA white collar crime.) I bet Boeing wishes about now that it had kept some of that buyback cash.